DISCLAIMER

DISCLAIMER:I do not attempt to be polite or partisan in my articles, merely truthful. If you are a partisan and believe that the letter after the name of a politician is more important then their policies, I suggest that you stop reading and leave this site immediately--there is nothing here for you.

Modern American politics are corrupt, hyper-partisan, and gridlocked, yet the mainstream media has failed to cover this as anything but politics as usual. This blog allows me to post my views, analysis and criticisms which are too confrontational for posting in mainstream outlets.

I am your host, Josh Sager--a progressive activist, political writer and occupier--and I welcome you to SarcasticLiberal.blogspot.com

Monday, August 27, 2012

Progressive Tactics: Perseverance Under Criticism

By Josh Sager

Modern conservatives have a
remarkable, if immoral (and occasionally delusional), ability to attack their
political opponents regardless of their opponents’ actual actions. In order to
attack political opponents who have not committed scandal-worthy offenses,
conservative hit-groups and activists (ex. Karl Rove) simply manufacture a
scandal and have their conservative allies repeat it until it becomes real to
the public. It matters little whether or not the attacks are factual, just as
long as enough people believe in it for it to become politically dangerous.

Examples of such attack
campaigns:

The Swift-Boat Veterans for Truth, which
speciously attacked Kerry’s war record during his race against George W. Bush
for the presidency.

The destruction of ACORN based upon altered
video and false allegations that ACORN was helping pimps get their employees
abortions.

The labeling of Barack Obama as a radical
leftist, despite the fact that he has enacted a centrist agenda, much of which
was copied from the Republican platform of the late twentieth century.

The “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scandal; Rep. Daryl
Issa (R-CA), a conservative politician, turned a small, if regrettable, scandal
into a large-scale witch-hunt that ended when reports were leaked that
indicated that nothing unethical had taken place, but not before the
conservative Congress voted to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt.

Progressives must keep in mind
that whatever their actual policies are, the right wing will attempt to brand
them as “extreme leftists” and “socialists”; given the dismally low level of
public information knowledge held by the public, these labels may even stick.
If such labels are unavoidable, then there is no reason for progressives to
tip-toe around the issues and moderate their speech so as to avoid being
labeled. Moderating progressive beliefs in order to avoid being labeled as
extremely liberal will only result in the situation where progressives suggest
moderate policies, yet they are inaccurately labeled as extremely liberal

Progressives should disregard all
conservative criticisms and attempt to express exactly what policies they
support without moderation. Given that conservatives will always label
progressives as extreme, progressives lose nothing if they actually propose
extreme policy changes. Even if progressives suggests extremely liberal
policies, the right wing has already used extreme enough labels for moderately
liberal policies that there are no descriptors left to attack truly progressive
policies. After calling every Democratic policy a socialist attack on freedom,
conservatives have essentially used up their vocabulary to negatively describe
left-wing policies.

Put plainly: What are
conservatives going to say if progressives unapologetically suggest progressive
policies? Call them socialists and communists even more?

Progressives should promote the
policies which they believe to be beneficial to society and should push
endlessly to convince the public that they should support such policies.
Moderating progressive policy based upon fear of conservative criticism is ineffective
and will never lead to the end-result of truly progressive policies being
enacted. It is better to truly be a progressive and to be labeled as one, than
to become a moderate out of fear, only to be falsely labeled a progressive.

Anonymous's Last Incarnation

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